Lens for Speed graphic to cover 6X17

nsurit · Apr 12, 2013

Anyone have any idea/suggestions about a lens to mount on my speed grahic to get decent coverage for a 6X17 back? Inexpensive would be nice/preferred and not absolutely essential. I'm using it with a magic lantern lens currently and will continue to do so, however would like to expand the vision a little. Thanks in advance. Bill Barber

noacronym · Apr 12, 2013

I'd say the cheapest way is to keep an eye out for a lens off a graphic arts camera--Kenro, Nuarc, Robertson, etc. They're barrel-mount fllat field lenses, generally, but stopped down, it might work. Not the best choice, I would think, but it WILL work.
Being a printer myself, I hauled my cameras off to the scrapyard 7 years ago.

E. von Hoegh · Apr 12, 2013

nsurit said:
Anyone have any idea/suggestions about a lens to mount on my speed grahic to get decent coverage for a 6X17 back? Inexpensive would be nice/preferred and not absolutely essential. I'm using it with a magic lantern lens currently and will continue to do so, however would like to expand the vision a little. Thanks in advance. Bill Barber

Any idea what focal length? A 150 convertible Symmar is inexpensive, and a very good lens. You'll need about a 190mm image circle at infinity focus,(more if you'll be using front movements) so let that be your guide.

Mike Wilde · Apr 12, 2013

I think I have a dumb question - how are you planning to put such a back on a grpahic?

Are you totally giving up on the OEM ground glass? We are talking 4x5 cameras, and 5" is 12.7cm to me, which is a good deal under 17cm.

For my franken-mod panoramic MF camera I converted an old polaroid J-66 roll film polaroid. Auto shutter still works for me. I ND filtered the selenium cell to have it auto expose for the 160 speed film I use and not the 3000 speed it was built to automaticaly adjust shutter speed to expose.

It now sports a darkroom load and unload 5' long spool of 70mm bulk roll film. Low tech - so many tuns of the knob to advance.

I added a winding knob/ extended length 35mm cassette spindle driver at one end of the camera to advance the film.

So far for the 3 hours of mod, and $10 to buy the camera at a thrift store I am happy with the two rolls I have shot using the el-chaepo plastic Polaroid lens in this camera.

Ian Grant · Apr 12, 2013

Anything from a Schneider 75mm f8 SA upwards will cover 6x17 on a budget , I use a 75mm f8 SA as my standard lens on my 617 Gaoersi and it's perfect fot my uses.

I'm not sure a 6x17 back will work on a Speed Graphic, there's the frame part for the shutter curtain that's not there on a Crown Graphic and it'll crop the edges with wide angle lenses, not sure what FL that'll begin though.

You have given me some thoughts though, as I have a spare Super Graphic front standard - already modified to fit any Speed Graphic - and a load of Graflex parts coming, enough to make a great 6x17 field camera

Ian

DLawson · Apr 12, 2013

Mike Wilde said:
I think I have a dumb question - how are you planning to put such a back on a grpahic?

Are you totally giving up on the OEM ground glass? We are talking 4x5 cameras, and 5" is 12.7cm to me, which is a good deal under 17cm.

While all I have (and all I've seen in person) are 4x5, I did the math and assumed that he has a 5x7 Speed Graphic.

I have some daydreams about those, but I would want to feel the heft before deciding whether I really want one.

nsurit · Apr 12, 2013

Shen Hoa 617 back seems to fit fine. Don't plan to use the focal plane shutter. The magic lantern lens I am using covers, but with fall off. Probably will want move focus and depth of field.
Bill Barber

k_jupiter · Apr 13, 2013

Lies, damned lies, and mathmatics

nsurit said:
Shen Hoa 617 back seems to fit fine. Don't plan to use the focal plane shutter. The magic lantern lens I am using covers, but with fall off. Probably will want move focus and depth of field.
Bill Barber

Ya can't argue math. 17 cm == 6.7 inches. The opening on the back of a 4x5 Pacemaker Speed is 4.7 inches. What do you plan on putting this back on?

tim in san jose

noacronym · Apr 13, 2013

I don't think any of this is a viable plan. It's like having a spark plug, a piston ring, and a transmission case and thinking you're going to build a go-cart out of it. Sounds like one of MY hairbrain schemes from the 1970's. If you have a Speed Graphic, then restore it back to the way god made it, and be happy you've saved it from extinction. To this day it makes me sick to see youtube videos of all the B-17's and B-29's in the bone yard in 1947, lost forever. (See "Best Years of Our Lives")They just ground them up and made mobile homes out of them. I thinks a couple episodes of COPS showed what a good idea THAT turned out to be. A Speed Graphic deserves a far better fate than some knucklehead turning it into a cannibal's project (Insert jovial attitude here, without the smileys.)

David A. Goldfarb · Apr 13, 2013

The various Chinese made 617 backs for 4x5" cameras are extension backs, so they do work, but there are some limits with minimum focal length due to the construction of the camera and how close you can get the lens to the focal plane, and maximum focal length, where you start to run into vignetting. Ian's point about the extra extension from the FP shutter on a speed are valid. I'd start with a 135mm or 150mm lens and experiment from there.

LJH · Apr 13, 2013

Regardless of which back, you'll be limited by the mechanical vignetting of the 4x5 orifice.

As such, you'll be limited to approx 90mm to 150mm focal lengths. This, of course, is pursuant on bellows' flexibility/compression on the shorter end.

k_jupiter · Apr 13, 2013

LJH said:
Regardless of which back, you'll be limited by the mechanical vignetting of the 4x5 orifice.

As such, you'll be limited to approx 90mm to 150mm focal lengths. This, of course, is pursuant on bellows' flexibility/compression on the shorter end.

For 150mm lens that is a 2.5 inch extension and only usable at infinity.

E. von Hoegh · Apr 13, 2013

k_jupiter said:
Ya can't argue math. 17 cm == 6.7 inches. The opening on the back of a 4x5 Pacemaker Speed is 4.7 inches. What do you plan on putting this back on?

tim in san jose

I was working on the assumption that the OP had a 5x7. If not...

nsurit · Apr 14, 2013

4 X 5 speed graphic. I'll run a test with some of the lenses I already have. It currently sits in my living room with a magic lantern lens which is allowing me to see edge to edge on the 6X17 ground glass. BB

nsurit · Apr 29, 2013

The answer to the question is the 127mm Ektar lens it came with. I tried a couple of longer lens which didn't cover, however both will cover 6X12 which is another option with this back. Bill Barber

k_jupiter · Apr 29, 2013

nsurit said:
The answer to the question is the 127mm Ektar lens it came with. I tried a couple of longer lens which didn't cover, however both will cover 6X12 which is another option with this back. Bill Barber

That is pretty obvious if you look at the math. How thick is this adapter?

Dan Fromm · Apr 29, 2013

Interesting answer, especially since the 127/4.7 Ektar barely covers 4x5, diagonal 150 mm. I thought that 6x17's diagonal was ~ 178 mm. Oh, well, wrong again.

Lens for Speed graphic to cover 6X17

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